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Thank you all so much for taking the time to give the EZ Flap handle a try in Austin! I am indebted to all of the nice folks at the Austin Fly-In for taking a few minutes to see for themselves. You guys are all tops! Thank you for what turned out to be all positive feedback which varied between "yeah that's actually kinda useful" to " Hey, I might want one of those when your PMA is done".

Special thanks go to my friend and mentor 182 STOL for allowing everyone within a 50 mile radius to climb in the airplane and check it out.

I'm proud to say that my EZ Flap public debut was the SECOND most interesting thing at the Austin event... I'll have to admit that not even a magic flap handle can compete with a pretty cute LearJet pilot making a straight and level pass 1000 feet above the highest obstacle within a 2000 foot radius, while not exceeding 60 degrees of bank and 30 degrees of pitch

My great thanks to ALL the Back Country folks (both the Hatfields and the McCoys) for giving me a chance.

Coyote Ugly, you are a gentleman, a skilled aviator, a wonderful barbecue chef, and a gracious host... but the back of your truck can be a cold wet place! Alaska Bushwheels, thank you for sharing advice and encouragement with a wet-behind-the-ears newbie in the modification business. Super Dave, thanks for the wonderful homebrew... the only reason I'm agreeing that it wasn't cold enough is so I can get some more next time to compare. 58Skylane thank you for proving that my gadget helps the tall guys as much as the rest of us, your airplane is beautiful too.

The only two regrets I had are that there was no formal Short Takeoff contest for 182STOL to win by a mile using my gizmo, and that I didn't have my old T-craft there to embarrass all of you in the spot landing runs.

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I am pleased to say that I passed my PMA inspection this morning, for all three areas of inspection...manufacturing facility, inspection, paperwork, and quality control.

FAA-MIDO advises me that my PMA number and official letter will be forthcoming within a few days, and that I can accept orders now with their blessing, with the understanding the product will be shipped out once I have the PMA approval in hand.

Also, backcountrypilot.org participants can take advantage of a $50 discount on the first EZ Flap unit sold in each US State as an early-bird incentive. More information is available at http://www.ezflaphandle.com .

Thanks to one of our own backcountrypilot.org forum members for becoming the first Colorado customer for this product.

EZ, glad to hear of your PMA. Now, if you are planning on selling internationally, you will need to get your DMIR (designated manufacturing inspection representative) so that you can legally sign off 8130-3 Tags. I should warn you though, it is a 2 step process. First you have to take and pass the online course, and second you have to go to Oklahoma City and pass the course there. Then you have to file all of your paperwork and wait for your appointment. Lots of work but needed if you do international sales. I passed my online course in a month, went to OK city in October and passed stage 2, got my DMIR the following June due to some paperwork issues (basically the Feds lost my initial paperwork because they moved their office to do carpeting. Took a while to find it again)

Brian.

Brian - Steve's Aircraft wrote:Now, if you are planning on selling internationally, you will need to get your DMIR (designated manufacturing inspection representative) so that you can legally sign off 8130-3 Tags. I should warn you though.......

For the DMIR stuff I may be better off to hire someone who is already certified to do that. I believe the DAR I used for this project is also certified as a DMIR so I might be able to have him do that function. Now all i need is 500 orders from Europe

I'm very proud to report that this afternoon I picked up my PMA authorization from the FAA MIDO office. My product is now legal to represent as FAA-PMA and I can now ship them out to the early-bird orders. You back country hillbillies are the first to know!

While there, I asked the FAA about the DMIR issue raised by Brian. There are a couple of options for this.

First, as a smaller manufacturer, i can become the DMIR myself, which as Brian related will require me to go through a course in beautiful Oklahoma.

Second, I can use a DAR to sign off the 8130.3 export tags for products going outside the USA where an export certificate is needed. In cases where an export certificate is not needed or demanded the 8130.3 tag is not needed. But in many countries it will be.

In contrast to the horror stories we've all heard, especially the Los Angeles FAA horror stories, I have to say the FAA was extremely pleasant, professional and helpful with this project. The FAA test pilots and flight test engineers liked the product and said it was a great idea, which I respect greatly because they see a lot of modifications that are not well executed.

EZFlap,
Congratulations!!! I haven't been through the STC process but have read enough horror stories. Again, congats for achieving your goal.
WW

Thanks to the positive and negative feedback I have received from this and several other internet Forums, the EZ Flap website FAQ and home page content has been updated accordingly. Please stop by at the booth at the Copperstate Fly-In in October if any of you get the chance. My test aircraft is scheduled to be there so you can sit in it and try it out for yourself. Thanks, Bill

Thanks to the folks from this forum that came by to visit us at Copperstate, I really enjoyed meeting you! We actually did about five test-installs on airplanes parked at the fly-in, all of which went very well. At least three or four were back country oriented airplanes and pilots, several of the people who came by the booth mentioned hearing about it on the backcountrypilot.org forum.

I look forward to meeting other backcountrypilot.org members at fly-in events around the southwest US and hopefully AK in the future.